(Note): In Ahmad’s version: “Among them are its mustard paste and its condiments.” It says in al-Nihayah: “Ṣināb is mustard prepared with oil; it is a condiment eaten with bread.”

1568 — “If you are a servant of Allah, then raise your lower garment.”

Ahmad (2/141) narrated: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Ṭufāwī narrated to us; Ayyub narrated to us from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Ibn Umar, who said: “I entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while I was wearing a lower garment that was rustling. He said, ‘Who is this?’ I said, ‘Abdullah ibn Umar.’ He said, ‘If you are a servant of Allah, then raise your lower garment.’ So I raised it to mid-calf, and it remained at that height until he died.”

Ahmad then also narrated it (2/147): Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us; Maʿmar informed us from Zayd ibn Aslam, with the same wording.

I say: This chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs. Al-Haythami said (5/123): “Ahmad and al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsat through two chains, and the narrators of one of Ahmad’s chains are the narrators of the Sahih.” This is what he said, but he should have said: “The narrators of both of its chains are the narrators of the Sahih,” for al-Ṭufāwī in the first chain is among al-Bukhari’s narrators; all the remaining narrators in it, as well as every narrator in the second chain, are narrators of both Shaykhs.

I say: The hadith plainly indicates that a Muslim must not allow his lower garment to extend below the ankles; rather, he must raise it above them, even if he does not intend arrogance by doing so. It is therefore a clear refutation of certain shaykhs who lengthen the trailing hems of their robes until they nearly touch the ground, claiming that they do not do so out of arrogance. Why, then, do they not abandon this practice in compliance with the Messenger of Allah’s command to Ibn Umar? Or are their hearts purer than Ibn Umar’s?!